Russia is Ready For Snowden: Edward to Leave Moscow Airport

National Security Agency leaker Edward J. Snowden may be granted temporary permission to stay in Russia as early as Wednesday, according to his lawyer, and seems already to have vanished from the capsule hotel in the international transit lounge of the Moscow airport where he has been trapped in legal limbo for the past month.

Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed whistleblower’s Moscow lawyer told state-owned Russia Today TV that Mr. Snowden will be free to leave the airport as soon as he receives formal notification from Russian authorities that his asylum application, filed July 16, is being formally considered.

“According to the existing practice, it may take five, seven or eight days. I’m calling them on …